“It’s a great opportunity, especially if the graduate school has a program that could relate to a student’s Plan, or even just help them along with their future,” says Cat Clauss ’17 (right), the first undergraduate to enroll in the new accelerated master’s track. Cat, who did her Plan in the psychology of career development, will continue to earn her MSM, with a concentration in mission-driven organizations, this fall. The accelerated master’s track can also lead to MAT degrees in TESOL, ed tech, and social justice, as well as an MBA. Learn more at goo.gl/P4gu9r.
Sophomore Cyane Thomas spent most of the summer in Seoul, South Korea, learning Korean and taking a course about the globalization of K-pop. “It’s super exciting because the classes fall in perfectly with what I plan to study at Marlboro, which is Korean pop music,” she says. A highlight was going to a music television show to watch various K-pop groups perform and promote their most recent musical releases. “I was excited to see these individuals sing and dance their hearts out with my own eyes instead of on a screen.” Learn more about Cyane’s work at goo.gl/rrnuGj.
Marlboro College made the short list for “10 colleges where joining student clubs is easy,” released in February by U.S. News and World Report. Drawn from U.S. News’ survey of more than 1,800 colleges and universities nationally, Marlboro is the only New England college in the top 10, tieing second with Hamilton College in New York State. “Since the typical club at these colleges had fewer than 10 people, the odds are higher that club members will get to know each other than at colleges where clubs are larger,” said the article.
“It was such a privilege to live and study in a place whose beauty is so immediately apparent yet so enigmatic,” says junior Andrew Domzal (right), who studied abroad last semester at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. Andrew was the first student to participate in Marlboro’s exchange program with Charles, where he studied philosophy and film. “There is something about a change of atmosphere that I believe to be essential, not just to philosophical or academic growth, but to the cultivation of the self. As I prepare myself for Plan, I can’t think of an experience that would have given me the same gifts that my time in Prague did.”
On March 8, Marlboro students, faculty, and staff participated in a walk-out in solidarity with “A Day Without Women.” Participants gathered in the Snyder Gallery at noon to appreciate Diane Heileman’s Women’s March exhibit and to hear poems, quotes, and statistics about women’s empowerment and pay equity. Community members were then invited to visit a table in the dining hall where they could donate to the Women’s Freedom Center and fill out postcards to be sent to victims of hate crimes via the Local Love Brigade.
“The other coaches were definitely impressed by our talent and potential,” says Brennan Cofiell, a student in the MA in Teaching for Social Justice program and co-coach of the Twin Valley High School snowboard team. The team was featured in a Febuary Deerfield Valley News article, highlighting their strong season after four years without a team. Brennan is student teaching social studies at Twin Valley, in the classroom of co-coach Scott Salway. “I have always loved teaching,” says Brennan. “I have recently stepped away from working full time at the mountain and am working on my MAT.”
Teaching with Technology student Erica Zimmer (right) presented what her students were doing in virtual reality at May’s Dynamic Landscapes conference in Burlington, Vermont. “I was able to secure a grant to build a Makerspace at one of my schools, and I used part of the money to buy a 360 Camera and VR Goggles,” says Erica, a technology integration specialist in Rutland. Two girls used CoSpaces to build virtual reality spaces, one about wolves and the other about horses. “The next thing I know, their objects are moving around in their spaces, something that requires a bit of programming. They had taught themselves how to code!”
“Decadent chords cut through, creating a wild, untamed haze which is the foundation for Wild Rose,” said the Valley Advocate, in an admiring review of the new album of music by senior Bella Ortiz-Wren. Released on Bandcamp in April, Wild Rose is an astute exploration of “our physical selves inspiring emotions,” according to reviewer Will Meyer. “The album is wise beyond Ortiz-Wren’s 21 years, but also makes sense within this context as well. The investigation of bodies, aspirations, and limits is certainly age-appropriate— questions and quandaries that can linger a lifetime.” Learn more at goo.gl/r7bVL5.
Congratulations to Marceline Mitchell ’17, who was awarded this year’s “Check Me Out” award for checking out the most books from the library. “I spent so much time in the library, definitely more than any other building on campus—my dorm included—so the award was a really cool thing for me,” says Marceline, whose Plan in politics and philosophy was “An Exploration of the Making and Unmaking of the Democratic Subject.” She said she had 166 books checked out at the end of the semester, and estimates she checked out twice that many over the course of the year.
Mad Tea Party 
Seniors Phoebe Okoomian and John Marinelli, Lindsay Stevens ’17, and sophomore Cary Russell take five during the filming of Phoebe’s dance adaptation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Photo by Clayton Clemetson
New Beginnings
In April, the graduate programs officially joined the main campus in Marlboro, marking the new co-location with a ceremony including a dragon dance, gift giving, and tree planting. Photo by Clayton Clemetson
Taking Action
Claire Wheeler MBA ’14 checks in on a group discussion about curricular innovation, part of the Action Planning Process that was launched last summer to include faculty, staff, and students in putting our best ideas forward.
Student Power
On April 12, Work Day included installing a solar panel on the Outdoor Program barn to power a new electric-assist, compost-toting tricycle, along with the usual splitting wood, trimming apple trees, building benches, and picking up trash.
Sexual Respect
In February, the college convened a community discussion on Title IX policy, featuring a panel of specialists, from left to right: Chantelle Cleary (SUNY Albany Title IX coordinator), Jean Kiewel (Title IX coordinator), Jeff Nolan (attorney), Robyn Manning-Samuels (senior coordinator of sexual respect and wellness), Max Foldeak (director of health services), and Meg Mott (professor of politics).
Tropical Paradise
Senior Iain Haukka pauses by a waterfall during an Outdoor Program trip to Guadeloupe, in the Caribbean’s Leeward Islands, during Spring Break last March. Photo by Clayton Clemetson
